Fiction-Food Café: Tamagoyaki (Grilled Rolled Egg)

You may have seen these little rolled egg guys in a packed lunch, or bento, in your favorite anime, manga, or K-drama. In Japanese "tamago" means egg and "yaki" means grilled. So "tamagoyaki" is literally grilled egg. It is a very common breakfast food and bento side dish in Japan as well as other Asian countries such as Korea. You can also find tamagoyaki slices on sushi! And guess what. It's very easy to make! The rolling in the pan may take some practice, but once you get the hang of it tamagoyaki might become one of your go-to dishes! Smalls definitely wishes I'd make it everyday. That girl can down some rolled egg!

Note: This is a pretty basic, slightly sweet, tamagoyaki recipe, but you can zazz it up by adding soy sauce, dashi stock (creating dashimaki), seaweed (also pictured in this post), or anything else you'd like to experiment with! Ooo, how about bacon!
Also, there is such a thing as a tamagoyaki pan, called a makiyakinabe, but don't worry! It's not necessary to own in order to make delicious tamagoyaki!

The red bento box in this post is 2-tiered & is available here.

Tamagoyaki (Grilled Rolled Egg)

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. Canola Oil
3 Large Eggs
4 Tbsp. Water
1 Tbsp. White Sugar
1/8 (pinch) Salt

Important Items:
2 Spoons & the occasional Spatula
(these are my rolling weapons of choice but you may be comfortable with a spatula or chopsticks, etc.)

Directions:
1. Pour the oil into a small pan & spread it around the bottom & sides using a paper towel. Heat the pan on low. Crack the eggs into a small bowl & add the water. Whisk vigorously until much of the clumpy egg bits are broken up. Add the sugar & salt & whisk again.
2. Pour half of the egg mixture into the pan & cook until the egg is mostly jiggly on top. Using one of the spoons push down any egg on the sides. Using both spoons gently roll the egg from one end of the pan to the other until you have a log shape. Carefully push/slide the egg roll back into the starting position so that the open end of the roll is facing toward the center of the pan. Make sure the pan still has oil in it, if not, add a little more.

3. Pour the remaining egg mixture into the pan. Once the mixture is mostly jiggly on top repeat the rolling process. Remember to be gentle! Before removing from the pan, momentarily turn the egg roll onto the seam side/ending side so that it can cook closed a little better. Now carefully slide the roll onto a plate & let it cool. Cut the roll into 1/2" slices, eat the two imperfect end pieces, & serve the rest in a bento or straight onto a plate!